LONG BEACH – Long Beach State’s athletic department administrators and coaches aren’t sure as to how the university-mandated furloughs are going to be implemented into their respective work schedules or how they will impact day-to-

day operations of the respective 49er athletic teams.

They just know the impact isn’t going to be pain-free anywhere on campus.

University employees, including coaches, administrators and support personnel (such as training staff) must take 24 furlough days during the 2009-10 academic year.

Six of those are to fall on university-designated “staff and faculty closure days” and 11 more on “staff closure days.”

The other seven furlough days must be designated by the employee, after discussion with his or her supervisor.

“Obviously, when a coach has a game or practice, he can’t have a furlough day,” Cegles said. “And, we have a home basketball game (against UC Irvine on Jan.9), the week when the entire campus is supposed to be closed down, so we’re going to have to get some exceptions. There are a lot of things that are going to have to be worked out yet.”

In all likelihood, a furlough may mean a day worked without pay for coaches whose teams are in season.

“Which coach in the country takes a day off in their season” LBSU women’s volleyball coach Brian Gimmillaro said. “You don’t have any time to take off.”

Said tennis coach Jenny Hilt-Costello: “The good thing is the furloughs aren’t going to affect retirement (contributions). And they’re temporary, not permanent. When the furloughs are over, we’ll be back on our same pay scale.”

Other stuff

Hilt-Costello said only one of the eight spots remains open for her program’s seventh annual “Beach Tennis Day” on Sept.19.

A tax-deductible donation of $500 enables the donor to spend a morning and early afternoon with the 49ers’ players and coaching staff at the Terry Rhodes Tennis Center, including drills with the coaches and players, a doubles tournament (involving the players and campers), an awards presentation and a pizza luncheon. All of the proceeds go to the program’s scholarship fund.

Softball coach Kim Sowder said Carson High graduate and former Cal player Christina Schallig “is going to have a great impact on our program and is pretty much capable of starting anywhere in the infield.”

“If I had to guess right now, I would think she would start at first base, which is where she played for Cal,” Sowder added. “But we have a lot of versatile players in the program and I’ll have a better idea after the fall (workout and scrimmage) season.”

Regardless of where she lines up, defensively, Sowder is counting on Schallig (who hit .339 with 41 runs batted as a freshman with the Golden Bears) to inject a lot of offense into the 49ers’ lineup, especially considering that three of the team’s top four hitters during a 35-21 season were seniors.

The 2009-10 men’s basketball schedule was finally locked into place earlier this week when Cal State Monterey Bay agreed to play the 49ers Dec. 12 at the Walter Pyramid.

LBSU opens its season at home Nov.14 with the other NCAA Division II opponent on its schedule, Alaska-Anchorage.

Even with the two non-D-I foes on the slate, the 49ers could be facing the most trying nonconference schedule in the country this season, highlighted by road games against Notre Dame (Nov.19), Texas (Dec.7), Kentucky (Dec.23) and Duke (Dec.29), and a spot in the 76 Classic in the Anaheim Convention Center, where they open against West Virginia on Thanksgiving morning.

They open Big West play Jan.2 at UC Riverside and play their first BWC home game a week later against UC Irvine.

The men’s basketball program will hold its third annual “Battle at the Beach” team camp Saturday and Sunday at the Pyramid.

Among the high school squads scheduled to participate are Bellflower, Cabrillo, Centennial, Gahr, Millikan, Poly and St.Anthony, with the list of travel teams including the Compton Magic, Southeast L.A. Elite and the I Can All-Stars.

Games begin at 9 a.m. with the final games of each day getting underway at 8:40p.m. The public is invited to attend and admission is free.

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